One Winter Night
by yuri god
Summary: Train station AU one shot. Chihiro's been keeping an eye on a certain stranger for a little while now, and is basically forced to interact with him one night... At least things went better than she'd expected.


We were complete strangers, but something about him had always caught my eye.

Every day when I boarded the train, whether it be on my way home, to visit my relatives, or to hang out with friends at our usual meet up spot, I saw him. We never spoke to each other, but every now and then, our eyes would meet. At first, it was kind of awkward for me. I wasn't that great around new people, but eventually, he'd start flashing a smile at me. It made me feel warm and fuzzy on the inside, but I'm not sure why.

I'd told my friends about this situation many times before, but none of them seem to understand where I'm coming from. It's always something like, "he's just a creep, you should just start using a different way home," or, "Chihiro, don't you think you're starting to scare him a little by paying this much attention to him?" but neither of those were it. It was something else.

One cold winter night, I had been running late.

My friends and I stayed out much longer than I had planned, and my father had started to worry about me. I bought my ticket and ran onto the train. It was empty tonight; no surprise, everyone would have been at home and asleep at this hour.

Except for one person.

There he was, sitting across from me.

It looked like he had a tiring day. He was asleep, and resting his head on the pole beside him uncomfortably. I don't know why, but my instincts told me to go and help him.

I took off the scarf I had wrapped around my neck and folded it. It was better to have some kind of cushion than none, correct?

I then walked over to him, being careful not to lose my balance as the train continued to move at its constant speed. As slowly and gently as I could, I moved his head over just a cinch, and placed my folded scarf between him and the pole. I let out a quiet sigh, and sat a good distance away from him. I was relieved he hadn't woken up, it would've ended up making the scene awkward for me.

I don't remember it happening, but I guess I had fallen asleep at some point on the ride home. By the time I had woken up, I was leaning up against someone else's shoulder.

It was his.

After rubbing my eyes, I sat up. I could hear the sound of clothes rubbing against each other as he moved around in his seat, repositioning himself as I had woken up. I looked over at him.

"I'm sorry," I started off speaking softly, "I hope I wasn't an inconvenience towards you."

"It's no big deal, you don't have to worry about it," he replied with a smile on his face.

I looked down at his lap and saw that he had kept my scarf safe. He noticed that I was staring down at it.

"Oh, and thank you for that earlier, by the way. You didn't have to do it, but I appreciate it," he said, returning the scarf to me. I looked up at him one more time, making eye contact. It felt as if his golden eyes had cast a sudden spell on me.

"Are you okay?" he asked, placing his hand on my forehead. "You're getting a little red there.

"Oh, n-no. It's nothing, I was just thinking about something. I'm fine," I said, averting my eyes. I didn't realize that I was blushing.

"I noticed you get on this train a lot," he tried to have a conversation with me.

"I could say the same about you."

"I should probably introduce myself," he said, looking over at me. "I go by Kid."

"It's nice to meet you then, Kid. I'm Chihiro," I responded, returning the gaze. The both of us smiled at each other afterwards.

"I should also probably tell you that I missed my stop a while ago," he added, letting out a sheepish chuckle. A look of panic was painted onto my face.

"What?! I'm sorry! It's my fault, isn't it? I'm sorry, I'm really sorry. You didn't have to do that."

"It's fine, I'll just have to stay at a friend's tonight, I'm sure they won't mind. I had to thank you in some way for giving my head a much more comfortable place to lean on."

"No, no…" my voice grew quiet. "I still feel really bad. You didn't have to."

"It would be wrong for a gentleman to ditch a lady in the dark like this, you know."

He had a point. I stayed quiet afterwards.

"Your stop is the next one, yes?" he asked, raising a brow. I nodded my head. He thought for a moment, then began talking again.

"I'll walk you home."

"What?" my eyes widened. "No, you don't have to. You don't need to go as far as that over such a small thing."

"I'm not doing this as a thank you. I'm doing this because I want to," he spoke in a serious tone of voice, which almost scared me.

"O-Okay then…."

"We can take this time to get to know each other."

I blinked a few times as my eyes met his once more. I was confused on why he was so curious about me.

"Don't you find that a bit… odd?" I asked nervously. "We just met, er, Kid…"

"Is it wrong for me to want to get to know someone right off the bat?"

"You're right… Maybe I'm just overthinking this."

Our conversation was interrupted by a loud 'ding,' with the along with the announcement that the train was now nearing the next stop. Kid and I both stood up from our seats and walked over to the door, waiting patiently. On our way, I had lost my balance and nearly tripped, but Kid caught me.

"Thanks for that."

"No big deal. Just watch your step next time."

I ended up taking the long way home just so I could spend more time to talk to him.

He was pleasant to be around. Speaking to him made me feel more confident in myself, gave me a sense of security. I ended up liking him a lot more than I thought I would.

I hope I'm able to spend time with him like this again.


End file.
